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Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by
Patients with Chronic Tension-Type Headache: Results of
a Headache Clinic Survey
Rossi P, DeLorenzo G, Faroni J, et al.
Posted: June 2006  
Headache 2006;46:622-631

Objectives:   This study was undertaken to evaluate the rates, pattern, and presence of predictors of complementary and alternative medicine use in a clinical population of patients with chronic tension-type headache. The use of complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of headaches is a growing phenomenon about which little is known.

Methods:   A total of 110 chronic tension-type headache patients attending a headache clinic participated in a physician-administered structured interview designed to gather information on complementary and alternative medicine use.

Results:   Past use of complementary and alternative therapies was reported by 40% of the patients surveyed. Chronic tension-type headache patients prefer complementary and alternative practitioner-administered physical treatments to self-treatments, the most frequently used being chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage. Only 41.1% of the patients perceived complementary and alternative therapies to be beneficial. The most common source of recommendation of complementary and alternative medicine was a friend or relative. Most of the chronic tension-type headache patients used complementary and alternative treatment as a specific intervention for their headache. Almost 60% of complementary and alternative medicine users had not informed their medical doctors of their use of complementary and alternative medicine. The most common reasons given for choosing to use a complementary or alternative therapy was the “potential improvement of headache” it offered. The patients who had used more complementary and alternative treatments were found to be those recording a higher lifetime number of visits to conventional medical doctors, those with a comorbid psychiatric disorder, those enjoying a higher (household) income, and those who had never tried a preventive pharmacological treatment.

Conclusions:   Our findings suggest that headache-clinic chronic tension-type headache patients, in their need of and quest for care, seek and explore both conventional and complementary and alternative therapies, even if only 41.1% of them perceived complementary treatments as effective. Physicians should be made aware of this patient-driven change in the medical climate in order to prevent misuse of health care resources and to be better equipped to meet patients’ care requirements.